Today designated Winter Weather Awareness Day

The Texas and Oklahoma panhandles had more winter-related deaths in the 1990s than the combined total from lightning, tornadoes and flash floods, according to the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

With that in mind, the Texas and Oklahoma Division of Emergency Management has teamed up with the NWS to designate today as Winter Weather Awareness Day.

Weather across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles is famous for its sharp outbreaks of extreme cold, often accompanied by ice and snow, said Steve Drillette, with the NWS. This winter is expected to be somewhat "wetter" than normal with the potential for above-normal snowfall, he said.

Drillette said 70 percent of winter-related fatalities are vehicle-related, either as a direct result of a traffic accident or from exposure to the cold once a vehicle becomes stranded.

As a part of Winter Weather Awareness Day, the NWS is advising Texas and Oklahoma residents to prepare for winter weather now by assembling survival kits for home and autos.